Help with 1st bus 🚎🚎🚎🚎

[jimancin]

1995 bluebird/ Chevrolet Schoolbus 🚎🚎🚎🥴
6.5 Liter V8 Diesel with automatic Transmission

I need to know any information I can find out the guy is asking $4995. And it has a little over 138,000 miles, what should I look for, is the a good deal, good engine, etc🤷*♂️🤷*♂️🤔🤔🤔🤔

Cindy

[PNW_Steve]

Welcome Cindy,

I would give some consideration to the engine in that bus.

The 6.5 is not a terribly bad engine. They did have a fairly common injection pump problem. That can be remedied. I drove a Suburban with the 6.5 in it. I don't know exactly what it weighed. Likely around 4500 pounds. It was fairly gutless. I would not have one in a large bus.

As to the price, $5k. Will buy you a MUCH nicer bus. Many of us have found good buses for $1700-$4000. My winning bid for my full size, rear engine Bluebird was $3450. It has the 8.3 Cummins engine and MD-3060. And only 170k miles.

If I were you, I would keep shopping.

Good luck.

[brokedown]

My experience with the 6.5 is that it's a good, reliable, boring engine (which is a positive not a negative) with a few well known weak points (injection pump #1). But in a full size school bus I wouldn't consider it. Is this a short bus? I'd take that 6.5 in a Type A bus over a gas engine every day of the week and twice on sunday. but I wouldn't pay $5000 for a Type A bus unless it came with a bag of $20 bills totalling $3500 inside.

[PNW_Steve]

Originally Posted by brokedown

My experience with the 6.5 is that it's a good, reliable, boring engine (which is a positive not a negative) with a few well known weak points (injection pump #1). But in a full size school bus I wouldn't consider it. Is this a short bus? I'd take that 6.5 in a Type A bus over a gas engine every day of the week and twice on sunday. but I wouldn't pay $5000 for a Type A bus unless it came with a bag of $20 bills totalling $3500 inside.

I have to laugh. You and I wind up on opposite sides of this particular point regularly.

I just don't have your patience. I get frustrated when I can't keep up with traffic. Just look at the bus I bought. I had to have the biggest engine I could find. I do love my 8.3.

I definitely agree with you regarding the value of that bus.

[brokedown]

Have you driven many Type A buses though? They had a pretty narrow selection of engines, none of which were powerful. You can bet a 6.5 or 7.3 is the right choice for such a thing compared to a 350 Chevy. Anyway, it's all relative. Think of it more as "Cutaway buses aren't great, but at least the diesel ones will last".

[PNW_Steve]

Originally Posted by brokedown

Have you driven many Type A buses though? They had a pretty narrow selection of engines, none of which were powerful. You can bet a 6.5 or 7.3 is the right choice for such a thing compared to a 350 Chevy. Anyway, it's all relative. Think of it more as "Cutaway buses aren't great, but at least the diesel ones will last".

I had full size buses in mind. Did I miss something?

In a cutaway I would definitely be looking for a 7.3 or maybe a 6.6.

[brokedown]

Yeah my first reply I think you skimmed it too quickly

[PNW_Steve]

Originally Posted by brokedown

Yeah my first reply I think you skimmed it too quickly

Yes I did.

[SolomonEagle]

Especially at that price,Skip it! Find a bus with an inline 6 cylinder turbo diesel.i personally would rather have a bus with time proven reliable mechanical workings and twice the overall millage.¢2

[jimancin]

Thanks for all the reply’s, but we don’t want a full size as they do not come with a wheelchair lift, as my husband is in a wheelchair, and as far as price we have been the whole ranges from 1,500 all the way up to 19,000 and most we can find have well over 250,000 and there just junk, gas ones we have looked at have over 200,000 miles. We have been to a lot of auction here in WA state and they sell for over 5,000.
https://images.craigslist.org/00j0j_...eC_600x450.jpg
Hopefully the picture has came thru, I did find out the the bus is non turbo. So any other input would be great, I spent 4 hours researching the 6.5 and I found out most of the problems and what to look for when we go to see the bus.

Again thank you all so so much

Cindy an Jim

[PNW_Steve]

Originally Posted by jimancin

Thanks for all the reply’s, but we don’t want a full size as they do not come with a wheelchair lift, as my husband is in a wheelchair, and as far as price we have been the whole ranges from 1,500 all the way up to 19,000 and most we can find have well over 250,000 and there just junk, gas ones we have looked at have over 200,000 miles. We have been to a lot of auction here in WA state and they sell for over 5,000.
https://images.craigslist.org/00j0j_...eC_600x450.jpg
Hopefully the picture has came thru, I did find out the the bus is non turbo. So any other input would be great, I spent 4 hours researching the 6.5 and I found out most of the problems and what to look for when we go to see the bus.

Again thank you all so so much

Cindy an Jim

They do put wheelchair lifts in full size buses. Take a look at the auction sites. You will find some.

[o1marc]

There are plenty of full size buses with handicap lifts. I had to look and turn down some nice ones because I didn't want a lift. With a little bit of time you will be able to find everything you want in a bus for $3500. 200k miles means nothing to me if it was well maintained. I bought mine with 250k on it and it's in exceptional shape. One of the few speedometers in a bus I actually believe. My bus came from Mead County,Wa. Look for a bigger bus, with a turbo 6 cylinder diesel. Follow this forum daily and you'll find a better deal than you have yet.

Start by going to the UserCP and fill out your profile so we know where you are, helps to answer your questions.

[JustKip]

Originally Posted by jimancin

Thanks for all the reply’s, but we don’t want a full size as they do not come with a wheelchair lift, as my husband is in a wheelchair, and as far as price we have been the whole ranges from 1,500 all the way up to 19,000 and most we can find have well over 250,000 and there just junk, gas ones we have looked at have over 200,000 miles. We have been to a lot of auction here in WA state and they sell for over 5,000.
https://images.craigslist.org/00j0j_...eC_600x450.jpg
Hopefully the picture has came thru, I did find out the the bus is non turbo. So any other input would be great, I spent 4 hours researching the 6.5 and I found out most of the problems and what to look for when we go to see the bus.

Again thank you all so so much

Cindy an Jim

I saw that ad on Craigslist. While I tend to agree that prices can be high on the west coast (I'm in CA), I'd be willing to bet that the dealer in Centralia paid less than half the $5k asking price at an auction. They may well have done a little maintenance to make sure you can drive it home, but they didn't put a lot of money into it. To me, in cenral California, that's a $3500 bus,

I'll echo what others have said; you can definitely get a full sized bus (and LOTS in the 32-40 passenger size) with a wheelchair lift.